The Rise of the European Emperor

After listening to Marin's explanation, Caesar was so surprised that he could stuff eggs in his mouth. He really didn't expect that America, which his father Marin desperately advertised as a "wild land", would be so rich and vast.

At the same time, he is also clearly aware that what he will inherit will be an extremely large empire. Because, Marin made it clear that the North American colonies alone are several times larger than Western Europe...

"Father, can we hold such a large territory?" Caesar was a little worried. He knew that the population of Beihai was too small, only about two million. The Kingdom of France probably has a population of more than 15 million. Even Spain has a population of seven to eight million people.

With a population of more than two million, it is still not enough to develop the local area, let alone develop a land that is several times larger than that of Western Europe?

Marin laughed, and introduced the Pexan cannon and the thousand-ton battleship under study to him, and said to himself:

"As long as this kind of big killer is developed, Beihai will equip hundreds of ships. Then, no one in Europe will be our opponent. We don't need to defeat all opponents on land, as long as they sink all their ships. .After all, if you want to compete with us for American colonies, you must have a fleet first..."

After Caesar thought for a long time, he suddenly realized:

"I see, Dad, you let me marry Princess Margaret of England in order to get a huge British fleet? With the new cannons and warships you mentioned, plus the huge size of England's ships, can we Protect the interests of the American colonies, right?"

Marin snapped his fingers and said happily:

"That's right, son, you are so smart! If it weren't for the huge colony, I would have married you to Princess Anna of the Kingdom of Bohemia. In this way, you can get two crowns from the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary , plus the Principality of Silesia."

But Caesar frowned and said:

"No, doesn't His Majesty Vladislas II have Prince Lajos? How do you say that if you marry Princess Anna, you can annex Bohemia and Hungary?"

Marin smiled without explaining. He can't tell his son that this is the history of the future, can he? Moreover, now that he has crossed over, he has also influenced history. Then, Lajos II may not really die in the hands of the Turks as in the original history.

But in any case, that is something that others should worry about. After all, his second son William is too young. If he was born earlier, maybe Marin would let him marry Princess Anna. But now, I'm afraid I don't have that chance. After all, Princess Anna is much older than William.

...

Looking at the standard map of the Americas drawn by Marin,

Caesar was overwhelmed. He felt that he owned the whole world. Because, according to Marin, the area of ​​North America is twice as large as that of Europe. If he could keep and rule such a large place, he would really own the whole world.

However, looking at the map, Caesar suddenly remembered a question——

"Father, America is so big that it's not convenient to send messages. Then, how will we maintain the rule of such a large territory? You see, these undeveloped places must have inconvenient transportation. If there is a rebellion in the central part of North America, we will You can use carrier pigeons to deliver messages. However, how to deploy troops to suppress the rebellion? After all, it is very difficult to send troops deep into the inland areas..."

"Then, in the end, we may only be able to maintain our dominion along the coast and along the banks of the great river..."

Caesar's question can be said to hit the nail on the head, directly pointing out the core problem. It's like someone asked - why didn't China expand more territory in history?

It's not that it can't, but that it can't maintain its rule even if it expands. After all, transportation in ancient times was too inconvenient.

Why did the Mongol Empire sweep across the Eurasian continent, but in the end they had to enfeoff the Four Great Khanates? It wasn't that the central government of the Yuan Dynasty didn't want unified management, but that the four major Khanates were too far away from the Central Plains to take care of them at all. The only way is to separate the four major Khanates into custody.

Back then, Emperor Wu of the Han used the power of the entire Han Empire to beat the Huns into calling them fathers, dispatching countless horses and ox carts to transport supplies. In the battle of Mobei alone, the Han Dynasty dispatched 240,000 horses and 500,000 troops, which cost countless money and food.

The 15-year war caused the Han Dynasty to lose hundreds of thousands of young men and hundreds of thousands of war horses. The loss of food, grass and money was even greater, and all the family fortunes left by the Wenjing era were wiped out.

In desperation, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had no choice but to stop the Northern Expedition, and issued an edict of guilt, and began to restore national power. Among them, most of the loss of money and food is not used in combat, but used in the marching and transportation...

From Guanzhong, the core area of ​​the Han Dynasty, the money and food needed by hundreds of thousands of troops were transported to Mobei thousands of miles away, and the loss of food and grass along the way was extremely alarming. The time to actually fight the Huns was actually very short, and most of the time and money and food were basically spent on the way...

Therefore, after the dynasties of the past dynasties obtained the Central Plains, they were generally no longer willing to expand. Especially the land on the grassland, it is not cost-effective to lay down the benefits and cost a lot of money and food.

Generally speaking, only powerful dynasties like the Han and Tang dynasties, or minority dynasties like the Yuan and Qing dynasties would be willing to seize and manage Mobei and the Western Regions. Because the cost of operating Mobei and the Western Regions is too high. Unless, there are enough steppe cavalry available.

...

Facing Caesar's thinking, Marin was very pleased. This is indeed the biggest problem in colonization. After the Europeans sailed, they could only circle the coast of the colonies for hundreds of years until...

Until the appearance of the train...

...

The emergence of the train made it very simple for the colonists' army to enter the inland from the coast. Not only fast, but also a large volume. Therefore, starting from the 19th century, the colonists were able to carry out a relatively comprehensive colonization of inland countries. At that time, wherever the railway was built, the influence of the colonists expanded.

Likewise, the significance of trains to large countries is enormous. For example, in the United States, when the Civil War just ended, the United States' control over the western region was still quite weak. At that time, people who went to California to pan for gold wanted to bring gold back to the east, and they had to take a boat around South America and return to the eastern coast. For this reason, another ship called the "Central America" ​​carrying gold sank.

After the Civil War, the United States relied on policy incentives to encourage private construction of the Pacific Railway. For this reason, the U.S. officials did not hesitate to give the land along the railway to private individuals who repaired the railway. Through this policy, the enthusiasm of private companies to repair the railway was greatly stimulated. It took 6 years for the Pacific Railway to be successfully built. The Americans also used the railways to finally complete the control of several western states. Before that, when Americans went to California, they had to take a ship to go around the whole of South America.

Similarly, although Russia occupied Siberia at the beginning, its control over the Far East was quite weak. It was not until the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century that Russia had the ability to project power to the Far East on a large scale. But the irony is that after the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1916, Tsarist Russia was destroyed the next year and was replaced by the Soviet Union.

In the Russo-Japanese War that broke out before the completion of the Siberian Railway, the Russians were defeated by the Japanese because they were unable to transport the millions of troops that crushed Europe to the Far East in time. You know, in that war, the number of Japanese deaths was actually much higher than that of Russia. However, the Tsarist Russian Air Force had millions of troops, but they could not transport them from Europe, which gave Japan a chance to win. And the Battle of Nomonhan broke out more than 30 years later, because the Soviet Union was able to transport large-scale aircraft, tanks and various military supplies from Europe through the Siberian Railway, which directly suffocated Japan. At that time, the Soviet Union transported 60,000 tons of munitions from the mainland to the Nomonhan area in August alone. There are 20,000 tons of shells alone. Then, the bravery of the Japanese was useless, and they were instantly beaten into fools. But the Japanese army's arms supply is always better than China's poorer army, so the Japanese army can still show off its power in China... until the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union freed up their hands from the European battlefield to clean them up...

Many people are bragging about the fighting power of the Japanese army. In fact, the Japanese army invaded China, but it was nothing more than a pecking at each other. In this mutual pecking, because the Huaxia army was poorer and lacked ammunition, the air was completely controlled by the Japanese army, so they were always suppressed and beaten. So what if you are brave? In the face of repeated bombing by aircraft and artillery, no matter how brave you are, you will be beaten into a sieve.

However, in exchange for the United States and the Soviet Union with sufficient ammunition, the Japanese army, which was short of ammunition, was instantly stunned. We don't talk about how brave the Soviet army is, but only the US military. The bravery of the US military is completely incomparable with the devils. But they have a lot of ammunition, so to attack a small island with only a few dozen people stationed, they must first use tons of shells to wash the ground. Then, all kinds of firepower continued. No matter how brave the devil is, he must kneel in front of this kind of tactics...

Therefore, railways are of great significance for colonists to control the interior, or for great powers to rule distant frontiers. In fact, before the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia's control over the Far East was actually very poor. The failure of the Russo-Japanese War proved this point. If the Qing Dynasty was a powerful regime at that time, it would have no problem taking Siberia by relying on its local advantages. But the last Manchu Qing Dynasty was a mud that could not support the wall. Tsarist Russia sent some expeditionary troops casually, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty could be frightened. Otherwise, it wouldn't be easy to lose the outer northeast...

...

Railways and trains are so important, and now, Marin has arranged for Da Vinci to start developing a train that moves the Watt steam engine to the carriage.

But Marin knew very well that this early vertical horizontal bar steam engine was actually very inefficient. Just like the train invented by Stephenson in the early days, because it used the inefficient watt vertical single-cylinder steam engine, the speed of the train was very slow, only a dozen or twenty kilometers per hour, and it could only drag a 30-ton carriage. The later trains often carried two to three thousand tons of cargo, which is incomparable.

But Marin also knew that rice had to be eaten bite by bite. So, he is now having Leonardo da Vinci test a train system driven by a single-cylinder steam engine powered by a Watt. Wait until this low-speed and low-cargo train is successfully developed, and then develop a horizontal double-cylinder steam engine to improve efficiency...

Once the train is successfully developed, it will be very simple for Marin to control the inland areas of North America in the future. There is no Indian tribe that cannot be settled by a train of troops. If there is, then another train of troops will be sent there...